Gay and Lesbian Activism With a Sense of Humor

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07/29/2011

A couple of people have written me about this new campaign from NOM, asking if the potential windfall means they should stop following the group on Facebook:

I say no, there's no need to stop monitoring NOM properties, if that's how you engage in this debate. We all know that NOM's Facebook wall is about 3/4 full of pro-equality pushback, not actual supporters. And most of the retweets and replies I see of/to @NOMTweets come from our side, not theirs. So personally, I think this entire campaign is a clever way to combat that. I think their expectation was for our side to see this campaign and think we could put them at a deficit if we removed our social networking follows, therefore handing the discourse over to the echo chamber that they so desire.

But here's the thing: NOM is going to get this money no matter what. If there's not enough of an increase on F'book or Twitter, they'll just claim they got 90,000 text messages or something. Somehow, some way, they will fulfill whatever goals they've set for this campaign regardless of whether or not their "likes" or follows actually increase. So why stop the monitoring that has given us much insight or the principled pushback that speaks truth to their desired power? Trust me: Their bottom line -- suspect as that seemingly endless well already is -- is not going to be affected by the en masse exodus they'd so love to see.

So I say follow away, folks. Screen cap that which is eye-opening. Respond to that which is fallacious. Properly hashtag that which is discriminatory. Let them have their 100k on a check that's already written. The potential insight we can glean from knowing our opposition? Well that's priceless.